Silhouette Ornaments

I am so excited with what I just did!

I have been trying to think of ideas for DIY ornaments I can do for our children each year for Christmas. I finally found a beautiful idea on Pinterest of a silhouette ornament on a glass ball ornament.

It was a white glittery ball with the silhouette mod podged onto it. I decided to do my own twist on it....

I am too lazy and frugal to go out and buy more glass ornaments (I also am afraid of years down the road not being able to find the same kind every year). So I decided to make them from scratch!

Salt dough is the easiest stuff in the world to make ornaments with. Plus they will have that homemade feel to them.

The salt dough recipe I used is:

1 cup salt

2 cups flour

1 cup luke warm water

That makes a whole bunch though. So if you are only making a few ornaments at a time like I did, cut down the amounts. A lot.

I ended up using: 

1/4 cup salt

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup water

And even this was too much. It ended up making 4 ornaments when I only needed 2 this time. Just so you have an idea of how much it will make.

I forgot to start taking pictures until after they were cooked, so stay with me here....

I rolled out the dough and used one of our normal drinking glasses as a cookie cutter. This way they can all be pretty much the same every year. Then I used a straw to cut the hole for the string.

I stuck them in the oven at 200 degrees for between 45-60 minutes, all the while checking on them since it's unpredictable depending on how thick you make them and what not.

During this time I took a profile picture of Tanner and loaded it up to my computer. I also found a picture of this time last year that was a perfect profile as well. THAT was a miracle.

I put on a movie that I know he likes and waited until he was sucked into it to snap the picture so he wouldn't move. I'm sure treats or someone being goofy in front of him would work too.

The picture above I'm pretty sure I remember Kollin entertaining him somehow.

Since we don't have a printer that works at the moment, I traced the silhouettes right off my computer screen onto baking parchment I have (it's pretty much trace paper). I held up the drinking glass to the screen over the pictures to size them correctly. I also added his fohawk from another picture for the 2012 one. I may even do it this way in the future whenever we do have a printer. It took out one whole step!

Then I cut them out and traced them onto the ornaments with a pencil.

With a small brush I went around the outline with black acrylic paint so I could get all of the little details and not fudge it up. Then filled in the head with a larger brush.

And then the opposite with baby blue (or any contrasting color) on the outside and back of the ornament. I made sure to really go over all the little nooks and crannies really well since it is pretty much impossible to get salt dough smooth. Ok, so I'm sure you can with sandpaper or something, but I opted for a more natural look.

After they were good and dry I wrote his name and the year onto the back of the ornaments with a skinny Sharpie.

Then added ribbon through the hole to hang, and wha la!

I am SO happy with how they turned out. I really could have made the 2012 silhouette smaller so his hair wasn't in the hole, but by the time I realized it was too big I was done with all the tracing and cutting of tiny details. I still think it turned out cute though.

This will be so fun to do this every year for all of our kids and be able to see the little changes in them as they grow!